Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The pruning of a Majestic Japanese black pine landscape tree.

Click on any of the images above to get a more detailed view.

Today we went to prune a majestic Japanese black pine landscape tree. I want to first give you a background of the tree. My father and I planted the tree at a friend of my fathers house when I was in Junior High. That means that the tree was planted in the ground over 35 years ago. The tree was a 5 gallon tree when we planted it in the ground. The tree currently stands at around 12 feet tall and the lowest branches extend out about 7 feet in either direction. The base of the trunk at the soil level is around 2 feet in diameter. This tree has phenomenal movement in the trunk. I will include photographs that I took today(Would you believe I remembered to take my camera?) I was not able to get a close shot of the trunk so a lot of the movement is hidden behind the branches. The bark of the tree is very rough as would be expected of a tree of this age. The branches are in all the right places. I would dare say it is one of the finest examples of a Japanese black pine landscape tree in all of California. There are no major wounds visible on the tree because it has been shape for so many years. This tree took my father and I over 3 and a half hours to prune. We had to make scaffolding out of the ladders and a 2 x 12 board. We also had to climb the tree in a few places to be able to reach the interior of the tree. Please post comments on what you think about the tree. I would really appreciate the feedback. Thank you! George